Selected Contents of Vaux Hill: The Collection of Robert & Barbara Safford
The Collection of Robert & Barbara Safford
In 2013 our team acted for the Safford family in the dispersal of antiques from Vaux Hill, a 20-room country estate with pre-Revolutionary origins in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
Upon the advice of The Fine Art Group, the 274 selected lots were consigned to auction in a single-owner sale that was promoted to the international marketplace with previews in both London and New York.
After an international tour and much media fanfare, the auction of the Selected Contents of Vaux Hill: The Collection of Robert & Barbara Safford achieved $3.9 million in sales—more than tripling the auction’s estimate—and set an auction record. Buyers from around the globe packed Freeman’s third floor gallery for a chance to bid on the 274 works spanning two centuries. Decorative arts from royal and continental craftsmen KPM, the Russian Imperial Porcelain Factory, the House of Hanover, and Louis XV were offered in the sale. Freeman’s attracted nearly 400 potential buyers via the phones, online, and in the room. What would have normally been a two and a half hour auction took place over five hours, as the sale drew fierce bidding.
The top lot was a hand-painted Russian urn produced by Nicholas I’s Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg, estimated at $150,000-200,000. After brisk competition from within the room, on the phones, and the internet, it went to the highest bidder in the room for $494,000. Urns of this size are unique and few have survived as they were extremely difficult to cast and very delicate. This was one of several large continental vases sold yesterday (lots 7, 64, 107, 126 152), which attracted heavy bidding and successful results.
An auction record was set for a rare gilt bronze mounted porcelain tall case clock by the Berlin Konigliche Porzellan Manufaktur (KPM), circa 1895, which brought $242,500. It is believed to be one of only six in existence produced after a design by Alexander Kips, estimated at $80,000-120,000. One of these six clocks is proudly displayed at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight; it was a gift given to Queen Victoria by her grandson Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Top Lots from Selected Contents of Vaux Hill: The Collection of Robert & Barbara Safford:
- $494,000
Lot 131: Important ormolu mounted Russian imperial hand-painted gilt-decorated porcelain urn. Russian Imperial Porcelain Factory, St. Petersburg, Period of Nicholas I, circa 1836. - $482,500
Lot 107: Rare pair of Russian hand-painted and gilt decorated blue ground vases, 20thcentury. - $254,500
Lot 1: Very fine gilt metal mounted Meissen porcelain and giltwood secretaire cabinet, circa 1880. - $242,500
Lot 39: Important German gilt bronze mounted gilt decorated and hand-painted KPM porcelain tall clock case clock, circa 1895 - $158,500
Lot 84: Large and impressive Sevres style porcelain white ground vase. - $134,500
Lot 154: Fine Continental Louis XVI style gilt-bronze and rhodonite seven-piece desk.
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